Seattle Injury Lawyer Blog

Specific risk factor increases likelihood of teen DUIs

March 30, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

Parents and teens, an important new study has been released that you should all be aware of. This study indicates that teens are more likely to drive under the influence (DUI) of alcohol, illegal drugs or prescription drugs that cause impairment after they have been exposed to similar behavior. Specifically, if teens ride in vehicles as passengers while a peer or an adult drives while impaired, they will become more likely to engage in similar behavior.

The government funded this study in an effort to better understand and to ultimately prevent drunk driving accidents. The study, which was recently published in the journal Pediatrics, suggests that teens become increasingly likely to engage in DUI behavior when they are exposed to such behavior as a passenger earlier and more frequently over the course of their young lives.

This means that as a parent, if you know that your child has been exposed to this kind of behavior it is important to counter the message that driving while impaired is at all acceptable. Teens, if you have been exposed to this behavior you may need to wrestle with the idea that driving while impaired is at all safe or okay.

Soccer players seem to be at an elevated risk of developing CTE

March 17, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

In recent years, American football has become increasingly difficult for many fans to enjoy due to increased public awareness of how many physical consequences players tend to suffer as a result of the game. In particular, the public, players, the NFL and the NCAA are all concerned about the prevalence of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) among professional and amateur players alike.

One particularly debilitating condition that can develop as a result of repetitive TBI is chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). This degenerative condition has affected boxers, hockey players and American football players alike. Unfortunately, it seems that CTE has now been discovered posthumously inside the brain of a 29-year-old former amateur and semi-professional soccer player. According to the New York Times, the portion of the player’s brain that sustained the CTE-related damage is located in the area that soccer players use to head the ball.

A number of studies in recent years have linked soccer players to an increased risk of TBI due to repeated contact between their heads and soccer balls. Heading the ball now seems to be tied to an increased risk of CTE even in relatively young players.

Study indicates that elderly drivers are becoming safer

March 16, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

Approximately 10 years ago, safety experts voiced alarm in regards to the increasing rate of elderly drivers on the road. Because elderly drivers have traditionally been associated with heightened rates of preventable car accidents, these experts were deeply concerned that as the number of elderly motorists on American roads increased, so would the rate of accidents generally.

Thankfully, a recent study indicates that these experts needn’t have worried so fitfully. According to analysis recently released by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), elderly motorists aged 70 and older are safer than previous generations of similarly aged motorists. Specifically, this current generation of elderly drivers is not only less likely to be involved in collisions, they are less likely to suffer serious injury or death in the event that they are involved in accidents.

According to the IIHS, two primary factors account for this positive trend. First, elderly Americans are healthier than previous generations of elderly Americans. Second, advancements in technology and safety regulations have helped to ensure that motor vehicles are safer now than they have ever been before.

The issue of driving while impaired by marijuana

March 7, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

Voters in Washington and Colorado have determined that legalizing certain amounts of marijuana for adult recreational use is an advisable idea. However, particular consequences of increased marijuana use among the general adult population are proving to be less than ideal. For example, many lawmakers, experts and safety advocates are concerned that accidents resulting from motorists choosing to drive while impaired by marijuana will soon become as ubiquitous as drunk driving accidents.

This is a particularly concerning potential trend, given that driving while impaired by any substance, legal or illegal, can endanger one’s own life as well as the lives of fellow motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. While states have fairly uniform drunk driving laws and little tolerance for this behavior, states are fairly scattered in the ways in which they deal with motorists who are impaired by marijuana usage.

In addition, it is oftentimes more difficult to spot, catch and hold motorists accountable when they are impaired by the active ingredient in marijuana. According to the New York Times, field sobriety tests are roughly 88 percent accurate in determining whether or not a driver is drunk. However, these tests are only 30 percent accurate in determining whether or not a motorist is stoned, according to a study published in the professional journal Psychopharmacology back in 2012.

Pradaxa documents speak to widespread scandal

March 2, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) works hard to ensure that prescription medications are both reasonably safe and effective before they are made accessible to patients. In addition, the FDA makes significant efforts to revise warnings and/or recall any prescription medication that proves to be a truly dangerous drug after it hits the market. However, these efforts are only beneficial when drug manufacturers and researchers are forthcoming about information they learn about these drugs over time.

According to recently unsealed legal documentation, employees of the manufacturer of a popular prescription blood thinner not only pressured the author of an internal research paper on the drug to revise the study, some employees believed that the entire study should be quashed.

This scandal points to a fundamental challenge that exists within the drug manufacturing industry. If research indicates that one’s product is dangerous, defective or otherwise harms patients, the money and effort which have been poured into the drug’s research, manufacture and marketing must either be supplemented with additional funds aimed at fixing the problem or the drug must simply be pulled.

NHTSA to require car seats to withstand side-impact crashes

February 21, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

In the United States, new parents are generally not allowed to leave the hospital without first showing hospital staff that they have correctly installed an appropriate car seat for their newborn. For decades, the American public has become increasingly educated in matters of car seat safety. Without these seats, infants and small children are much more likely to suffer injury or death in the event of car accidents. As a result, it is imperative that parents purchase safe, age-appropriate seats for their children.

Yet, for all the education that parents receive about car seats, many may not know that current child safety seats are not required to hold up in certain kinds of accidents. While there are currently frontal crash standards that seat manufacturers are held to, child safety seats are not required to hold up in potentially deadly side-impact crashes.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is finally seeking to remedy this significant safety regulation gap. Last month, the agency proposed a rule mandating that child safety seats must withstand any side-impact crash that occurs at speeds of 30 miles per hour or slower.

New study indicates that FDA drug approval process is flawed

February 15, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

As many of our readers know, one of the primary missions of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is to ensure that prescription and certain non-prescription medications are both safe and effective for public use. When these medications are potentially unsafe, the FDA does its best to educate the public about possible dangers by requiring drug manufacturers to include this information on warning labels and on advertisements.

The American public counts on the FDA’s approach. Many trust that dangerous drugs will be properly labeled as such and that defective prescription drugs will either never made it to market or will quickly be recalled. However, a study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that the FDA’s approval process may not be as reliable as the American public has been led to believe.

According to the study, the quality of evidence that the FDA analyzes in order to determine whether specific drugs should be approved or denied for public use varies widely. Some drugs are approved for certain indications on the basis of numerous trials, while some are approved one the basis of a single trial. In addition, these trials vary widely in terms of completion rates, duration, comparators, patient size and endpoints.

Study determines that buzzed driving is a myth

January 30, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

It is all too easy for responsible adults to unintentionally drive while intoxicated above the legal limit. Alcohol metabolizes at different rates depending on a variety of factors. Unfortunately, if you have a few drinks with dinner, you cannot always count on your body’s signals to let you know whether or not it is safe to drive as you may feel completely sober even when your blood alcohol content (BAC) is above .08.

So, what guidance should you follow when attempting to avoid driving under the influence (DUI)? A new study indicates that even if your BAC is below the legal limit of .08, you should avoid driving altogether until you are completely sober. Some Americans believe that being “only buzzed” prevents them from driving in harmful ways. But even if you are not legally drunk, you can still be an unintentional menace behind the wheel.

A study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego concludes that drunk driving accidents occur even when “buzzed” (BAC of .01 to .07) and “minimally buzzed” (BAC of .01 specifically) motorists are driving with blood alcohol levels below the legal limit of .08. These researchers examined data associated with more than 570,000 fatal car accidents that occurred between 1994 and 2011. The data they analyzed indicates that even drivers with a BAC of .01 are nearly 50 percent more likely to cause fatal accidents than sober drivers are.

Brain injury patients may face heightened risk of early death

January 23, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

We have previously written about how important it is to prevent brain injuries whenever possible and to properly diagnose and treat those that do occur. Whether they occur as a result of auto accidents, maritime accidents, sports-related collisions or a host of other scenarios, brain injuries may be life-altering and must be treated seriously. A new study conducted by research experts at England’s Oxford University confirms this critical point.

According to this recent study, individuals who have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) face a significantly higher rate of premature death than the general population does. According to the study’s lead researcher, “After a traumatic brain injury, patients have a threefold increased risk of dying prematurely.”

This statistic is certainly upsetting. But it is important to understand some deeper truths that this research has revealed. The study’s authors determined that most of the premature deaths suffered by brain injury victims occur as a result of additional brain injury, suicide and assault. In addition, the risk of premature death climbs even high if the patient struggles with a substance abuse and/or psychiatric issue.

TBI recovery may take two separate tracks, study suggests

January 12, 2014 | Kraft Davies Olsson PLLC

When you suffer any kind of injury, your body may be affected by that injury long after you stop experiencing symptoms outwardly. In the case of traumatic brain injuries (TBI), a recent study suggests that the brain may be riddled with abnormalities for months after symptoms have abated. This prognosis holds true even in cases of concussions and other mild brain injuries.

This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and was recently published in the medical journal Neurology. Its findings are particularly significant given that it helps to confirm that the brain is affected by TBI after symptoms subside. It is also significant in that it suggests that the brain heals in two possibly distinct ways.

The study’s author recently explained that, “These results suggest that there are potentially two different modes of recovery for concussion, with the memory, thinking and behavioral symptoms improving more quickly than the physiological injuries in the brain.” When these kinds of conclusions are drawn, they often inspire other brain researchers to more carefully study the phenomena involved. Those studies can then help to inspire improvements in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of TBI.